Vera Zakem, Chief Technology Innovation Officer for the State of California, gave the following address to the School of Information graduating class on May 19, 2026:
Hello students, hello families, hello friends, and hello UC Berkeley community. It has been a joy to get to know so many of you throughout this past year, and to be here with you today.
I know this has been a long road, but you made it. You have earned the right to be proud — to be graduating from one of the finest universities in the world and from the School of Information, where your experience designing technology that truly serves people has never been more urgently needed.
You know, for me, this is truly a full circle moment. Like so many of you, I am a third culture kid and English is not my first language. I did not do well on my SATs, and while I had good grades, Cal was not in my future. However, while I could not attend this great university as an undergrad, my best friend did. I was nearby at USF, and during my senior year of college, I fell in love with this university and the Berkeley community and spent virtually every weekend on Oxford Street and on campus.
This year, I finally had the chance to officially join the UC Berkeley community as an Executive Fellow in Applied Technology Policy. I have seen you ask hard questions about how AI can benefit people, how to protect kids from deep fakes and teach them how to use AI responsibly (while making sure they don’t use it to write all their papers!); how to strengthen our digital systems against cyber attacks, and how we can deploy AI safely and responsibly in emerging markets. I have also been exposed to groundbreaking research and met builders and innovators who I know are already building the next unicorns and breakthrough companies, including through UC Berkeley’s Big Ideas Challenge. It is not lost on me that I am standing on Bear Territory, at the university that not only generates the most venture-capital-funded start-ups, but is also #1 in the world for female-founded start-ups. This includes many I School alumni. I recently learned that last year’s Big Ideas Grand Prize Winner was an I School-founded company, AgriSolar, which empowers smallholder farmers in Nigeria with portable, solar-powered irrigation systems provided at no upfront cost, enabling year-round cultivation through a revenue-sharing model that enhances food security, increases incomes, and promotes climate resilience.
To the women graduating today: we need your voices shaping our digital future now more than ever — in policy, in elected office, in universities such as Cal, making the discoveries, and in companies that are designing and building responsible products that benefit our humanity and security. This means showing up in the rooms where AI and other technologies are governed — including the boardrooms. And to everyone, including men, your allyship has never been more important. Thank you.
Because you see, what makes the I School special is that you have been studying, researching, and building technology that serves people, that shapes our collective security, rooted not only in Berkeley values, but California values: the values of innovation, of inclusion, of freedom, civil rights, and opportunity.
And as you move on into your careers, these are the values that are going to carry you forward, and there will be many times where you will need to lean in on them hard. And perhaps the two qualities you will need more than ever in these times are resilience and perseverance.
Why? In my time on campus this past year and in connecting with many of you, I have heard your concerns about the tumultuous world you are entering. Just this week, we are hearing about new outbreaks of Ebola, anxiety about AI taking over jobs, and genuine affordability concerns, yet also opportunities that technology can make us more productive and increase our creativity. So you see, technology, including AI, will either be the force that has destabilizes the planet and its people, or be the force that supercharges discovery, innovation, and opportunity. It is up to you and your generation to decide and make your mark.
I was thinking of a few examples to help illustrate this:
- If you are a parent or have younger siblings, you might be concerned about chatbots impacting children’s mental health, where some kids use AI for companionship.
- And if you have families in conflict zones, we have seen how AI-manipulated content has flooded social media, distorting facts about food security, complicating humanitarian response, and eroding trust in society.
- And if any of you come from more rural areas, you may have experienced that more and more, a mobile connection is needed. Yet even here in California, that's not the case. And in countries that I have visited, including Fiji and Indonesia, when people get connected for the first time, they need digital literacy, AI literacy, and cybersecurity skills to use the technology securely, smartly, and productively.
Yet, I also see so much promise in this technological moment. Just to share a few examples:
- Now, if you’re looking to go into applied AI for health. We have seen how AI has transformed diagnostics and disease prevention. For example, AI is transforming ALS research by accelerating drug discovery, identifying biomarkers, and enabling precision medicine, offering real hope to nearly 300,000 people worldwide. Like cancer, this terrible disease has touched my family, and breakthroughs like this give me real hope.
- And if you are interested in education, AI-powered learning platforms are delivering personalized reading and math instruction to children in villages with no libraries, no reliable internet, and sometimes no certified teachers in many parts of the world.
Here is why I am sharing this with all of you. Each of these examples exists because someone just like you decided there was a problem worth solving. In these times, choosing resilience, choosing to overcome adversity, choosing to push through will position you well in the next chapter of your life.
Throughout my own life, I've had to draw on resilience and perseverance simultaneously, with a healthy dose of chutzpah and hustle along the way. I’ll share two examples that shaped me:
Like perhaps some of you, I was raised by a single mom. And for me, with not a whole lot to our names, and without knowing much English, I struggled to fit in and understand my place in the world as an 11-year-old kid. It wasn’t until I sang (yes, sang) in front of my mom’s teacher, that the teacher noticed that spark in a shy kid who seemed to have promise and potential, and acted on it. She convinced an independent school in Danville, CA, the Athenian School, to give me a shot with a scholarship despite my poor test scores and limited means. It was challenging, because often, I had to figure it out on my own and relied on the kindness and care of family, friends, and mentors who have shown me the way, not just as a young girl, but throughout my life and career. And it is because of these people that I learned to cultivate relationships, to bring people together, and most importantly, to pay it forward. So, as you embark on this next chapter, think of your peers, of those who may not have a voice, and help them succeed. The universe will pay it back, tenfold.
And in recent years, my resilience got tested too. When I got the call to enter public service, I had 48 hours to decide whether I wanted a job at USAID. There was one small problem. Moving my family back to Washington, DC, was simply not in the cards. Maybe some of you can relate, but you see, I am part of the sandwich generation. With an elderly parent and young children, my husband and I made the decision that it was best for the family to stay put in California. So what did I do? I traveled back and forth between California and DC, and to 19 countries along the way. The plane, with plenty of red-eye flights, became my second home. And when things got tough, and, trust me, they did, I chose to push through because I believed in the mission. I still do. It is not lost on me that I was able to pursue my dreams because I have a very supportive partner and a supportive community. So if I can offer one piece of personal advice: if you choose to settle down, find yourself a kind and supportive partner. I cannot emphasize that enough!
The experiences that have tested me most have also taught me the most. So let me close with a few things I wish someone had told me:
- As you go build the next great companies, serve in public office, or maybe invent the next breakthrough at UC Berkeley, stay true to your values. Let your perseverance, truth, your moral compass, your lived experience, your contextualized knowledge shape the digital world for our children and grandchildren. We need your honesty and truth now more than ever. No technology can take that away from you.
- Perseverance: When things don’t go your way, and many times they won’t, do not give up. Because those failures and disappointments are likely opportunities and a sign that the universe has something bigger in store for you. As one California technology leader recently shared with me, “overcoming adversity is a choice you get to make.”
- Be the person who GSD, or “gets ‘stuff’ done,” But seriously...I have found in my career that it is not enough to just have the best idea, but it is critical to roll up your sleeves and show you can execute on the idea. I have found that showing up, doing the work, and making things happen is more important than grand ideas without a plan of action.
- The Beatles put it best, “I get by with a little help from my friends.” In this turbulent world, you will need your friends, your partners, your co-conspirators, and your allies. Trust me. You don’t need many. But you need a select few. So what to do? Create your kitchen cabinet. Your trusted network. Maybe it’s your co-founders, maybe it’s your friends, professors, mentors, colleagues, family, aunties, uncles, your kids, and your roommate. But to maintain your resilience and persevere, you will need the people who will be there for you no matter what, who can call your bluff and call your BS. These are the people who will be with you not only when you raise your next round, become the next CTIO, or the next Digital Ambassador, but when you’re broke, when you are sick, and when you need a shoulder to cry on. Know you are part of a team.
- Believe. To stay resilient, to persevere, to build AI and other technologies that truly benefit people, our security, and humanity, you have to believe. I am asking you to believe. That with your knowledge, with your ingenuity, scrappiness, and innovative spirit, with what makes you you, you have the power to change the trajectory of our digital future. But to do that, you must first believe in yourself.
So here’s to you, graduates. To the late nights, your hard questions, and the brilliant, principled work ahead of you. To your families, your friends, your partners, to every sacrifice and every act of love that brought you to this moment.
You are exactly who we need. Now go chart the digital future!
Go get ’em, and Go Bears!
